Op/Ed

The clubs have names like I Am One and Brave Women of
Palm Beach County, and to look at their elegant members,
you’d think they were ladies of leisure on their way to
a fashion show or an art gallery.

Instead, they are the heartbroken survivors of
beloved children and siblings whose extreme mental
illnesses ultimately killed them, and they are on their
way to any
and every microphone they can find. They have
learned the hard way that silence kills, and they are
done suffering in silence.

At
age 85, Rita Thrasher is not worried about people who
think that mental illness is something about which to be
ashamed. She and “a small group of thoughtful,
committed” mothers and sisters are working to comfort
afflicted families, and afflict federal, state, and
local governments that are stuck in the 80s — the 1880s
— in their approaches to mental illness.

By the time Mrs. Thrasher’s daughter Valerie ran away
from home at age 18, she had been suffering for seven
years from the bipolar disorder than would lead her to a
lonely death at age 42.

Then and now, there was precious little meaningful
help for people like Valerie. Mood disorders don’t show
up on X-rays, but their symptoms cause heartache and
chaos in a young person’s world. These conditions can be
managed effectively, and people with mental illnesses
can lead happy, productive lives.

But for every family that can find, and afford, the
necessary care, there are tens of thousands who live in
communities where competent professional help does not
exist, or is unaffordable to all but the very rich.

The kids self-medicate with infinite varieties of
self-harm as their families try desperately to protect
them. But parental love is no substitute for appropriate
medical care. The kids end up in jail. They end up dead.
Some of their loved ones will follow them off the cliff.
Others, like the Brave Women of Palm Beach County, will
take their cue from Mrs. Thrasher. “I am doing this work
today because I want it in the curriculum of life,” she
told the Sun-Sentinel’s Brooke Baitinger.

From her mouth to God’s ear, and to the ears of every
Florida health care policymaker.

I appreciated Florence
Snyder's article about the work of volunteer groups
whose family members' mental illness led to their death.
As the parent of an adult son living with me who
struggles with mental illness I know how hard it is to
try and navigate the disjointed and understaffed social
services in Hillsborough County where I live.

I belong to a wonderful volunteer support group called
NAMI, (National Alliance on Mental Illness) that has
been invaluable in providing information on what is--or
isn't-- available to my son, as well as much needed
emotional support for me.

Volunteer organizations such as NAMI and the ones
spotlighted by Ms. Snyder are to be applauded, but it's
not enough. The state of Florida needs to get out of the
dark ages with its approach to mental illness and step
up the funding.

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